I am confident that Major League Baseball will help Josh Hamilton find the help he needs. I do hope, however, that whatever else they do to him does not contribute to the tendency to treat addicts as miscreants.

Andrew McCutchen is currently under contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates through the 2018 season, but the club is already looking well into the future and they want to make sure the star outfielder remains a major part of it.

Markakis needed fusion surgery for a herniated disk in his neck two weeks after signing a four-year, $44 million free agent contract with the Braves. So of course the Orioles’ reluctance to sign him was about his neck.